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Show COMMISSIONER OF INDIA?? AFFAIRS. 21 fair and just settlement of these claims, measures ought at once to he taken for their investigation, and a fund provided for their payment. Repeated references have been made by my predecessors to the unpromising condition of Indian affairs in Utah Territory. This is ascribable to several causes, amongst the chief of which are the natural poverty of the country, the destruction of the wild game by the int~oductiono f white men, and the selfish policy of the Mormon people. I t thus follows that the bulk of from 15,000 to 20,000 of the original proprietors of the country, deprived of their accustomed means of subsistence, are driven to the altelnative of laying violent hands upon the property of the whites, or of perishing by want. In the pursuit of its duty to prcvent, t,o the best of its ability, either of these results, the gozmment bas met with no little difficulty and obstrnction, due, in part, to the vastness of so poor a region, and in part to the fanatical perverseness of the white inhabitants, who are almost wholly subjects of the &Iormon hierarchy. The late superin-tendent and agents, impressed by spectacles of gaunt famine continually pre-sented to their eyes, seem to have thought it necessary not only to distribute dl the funds furnished them for supplying the wants of the Indians, hut also to strip the reservations of their fnrm implements, teams, animals, and even furni-ture, in order to obtain additional means for the same pressing purpose. From several causes, the principal being, perhaps, NIormou intrigue, the In-dians had become, during last winter and early spring, exceedingly hostile to the whole white ram, when the late superintendent, as he states, by g.athering them in council at various places, and making them presents of provisions and other necessaries, succeeded in calming their fury. No other hope of adequate remedy for the state of Indian affairs in this country presents itself than the vigorous resuscitation of the reservation system, in the light of such improvements as experience has suggested. One of these appears to be the recognition of cattle husbandry as a means of subsistence for the Indian, equal in importance with the tillage of the soil. In the conlpara-tively rainless countries west of meridian of 100 degrees agriculture must ever he conducted under circumstances of disadvantage and risk as compared with regions where rains are frequent or periodical. To fu~nishth e Indian, who is. naturally far mare of a herdsman than a cultivator, with a source of reliance in those not nnfrequent seasons when crops almost wholly fail, is to do for him one of the greatest possible benefits, since it closely assimilates the provision made in his behalf by nature herself a-g es before the a-p -p earance of the whita man upon the continent. The present officers of the deeaftment in Utah commenced the discharge of their duties under discouraging clrcumstauces. They found desolation extend-ing even to the office room of the superintendent, and the reservations swept of agricultural means and appliances with vllich they had been furnished. To a * z ~ e aet xtent the Indian residents had also deserted the reservations, and had gmttwed themsolres in various portions of t.he Territory in search of the means of subsistence. Interviews held with some of the chiefs of important tribea developed the wish of the Indians of the Territory generally to come under Qeaty relations, and to cede their lands to the United States, thereby securing to themselves quiet homes, and the nleans of comfortnhle subsistence. These chiefs will stipulate to be held respon~ible for all depredations that may thereafter he committed by any of their people, and that the damages shall he deducted from their annuities. To meet the various exigencies of the next year's Indinn service in the Terri-tory, to asswe the protection of the overland mail and telegraph lines, and to re-equip the farms on the Spanish Fork, Corn creek, and San Pete reservations, will require, in the judgment of the superintendent, at the minimum, an appro-priation of 8150,000. I would respectfully refer you to what the late Super-intandent Davies repeats from San Pitch, chief of the Snake Digger Indians, |