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Show I REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 35 gmnnds, to procure their supplies of meat and fnra, and will enffer for clothing. They are faithful to the government, and tendered to it the services of all their wariorrn. It is to he regretted that, since the abandonment of their school in 1860, none has taken its place, and. the agent recommends that. a sufficient mount of their annuities be applied to the support of a school. Many of the Kickapoos, as we are informed by Agent Bennett, are diasatie-fied with the treaty negotiated with them in 1863, and are alarmed at the pmh-able results of the settlement of white persons near them, npm the sale of a portion of their lands, provided for in that treaty. About one-half of the trihe wentinto thesouthwestern part of Kansas ahout August 1, where they engaged in the hunt, decla~ingth eir intention to find, if possible, some favorable location to which they might, with the consent of the government, be removed. Per-haps this disposition on their part may he turned to good account by their s e t tlement as a tribe in the Indian territory south and west of Arkansas, when the condition of the country will justify such a removal and location, where they may be placed in a comfortable condition with the funds realized from the sale of their present reservation. Their farming operations during the present year were reasonably successful. The Sacs and Foxes of the Miesissippi show very little signs of improve-ment. They rejected with great unanimity the proposed amendments to the treaty made with them. This trihe displays very little dispositiun to adopt the pursriit.8 of agriculture. They planted, however, the usnal amount of land, and those who planted early realized about one-third of a crop. The census of the trihe makes the number eight huudred and ninety.one souls, which is a decrase of eiehtp-four in a year, but,the agent thinks that a Dart of thia decrease may he p;opFr~y aocoutied for by rht: 'bloecnce uf sumc of tho people on a visit io other rrilra. Thr pn,pi.rty of the tribe, including the value of the crop% is es-timated at about 8511.000. Thpir mission scl~ooils in a pond condithm, with an average attendance of twenty-live cltildrco, who are making excrllenr progress. The Chippesa~a nd Bfun$cea, or Christian Indiancr, who sw ul~dl:rc ltarge of thid agency, are far advanced in civilizntion-have comfortable I~otneda, nd are well c'iothid, peaceable, and truly loyal. The condition of the Pottawatomies, in everything except as to their fam-ing operations, is reported by Agent Ross as in the highest degree sati~factory. Of their number, two thousand two lrundred and seventy-eight soulv by the census of this year, two hundred males, to whom allotments of land weremade, have, under the provisions of their treaty, taken the preliminary steps to be-come cit,izens of the United States, and are regarded as fully capable of man-aging their own affairs, while many more are about to apply for naturalization papers, preparatory to abandoning their tribal state. The provision of the late treaty with this tribe in relation to conferring upon some of its members the rixhts of citizenship is regarded as eminently proper as to a limited number, but it is to be feared that, unless the strictest scrutiny of the qualifications of applicants is made by the courts, very many who are tmqnali6ed for so radical a change in their political relations may. through the influence of designing whites, be induced to take upon themselves the duties of citizenship, and in the erld be found wliolly incompetent to discharge the sme. Instructions upon this point have been issued to the agent in charge, andevery precaution will be taken by this office to prevent an abuae of the very import-ant and valuable rights granted by this trefty. Of those who prefer to continue their tr~halc ondition, a party went south to search for a new country, and the agent thinks that their separation from the remainder of the tribe and settlement upon a new reservationis desirable. The same remarks above made in relation to the Kickapoos will apply to this pox. tion of the Pottawatomies. The number of acres cultivated by the latter this year was about two thousand; but their crops failed entirely, and also their |
