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Show 32 XEPORT OF TEE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. to Idaho, for greater facility of communication ; and the suhjeet of the school has been referred to Governor Lyon, with instructions to cause the plau to he put in operation, if, after inquiry, he shall deem it advisable. The Flathead agent has recently been directed to report to the governor of Idaho. A year ago last July Mr. 0. D. Barrett, under a special commission from your predecessor, and with instructions to report to Governor Edgerton, of Montana Territory, was intrusted with a qnantity of goods for the Indians of that region, and provided at St. Joseph with an excellent four-mule team and wagon in which to convey the goods with himself to his destination, and a snfficient sum was advanced to him for his expenses. Governor Edgerton was advied of his appointment, and direeted to discharge him upon his arrival and deliveq-of the goods, if his services were not needed. Mr. Barrett wae heard from Late in ihe tall, having had had luck in his journey; again in the spring, having left hia goods at Salt Lake City, and borrowed $50 of Superintendent Irish to get them out of store ; and again, two or three weeks sinee, having arrived in Mon-tana with neither team nor goods. At about the same time Governor Edgerton advised this office of Mr. Barrett's arrival, and that he had notified him that his services were not necessary, and that thereupon the agent declined to he did-charged, claiming to hold a commissionirrevocable by thegovernor. Governor Edgerton has been directed to "stop the supplies," and pay over no money to Mr. Barrett, on any account, until all money and property plaeed in his hands shall be fully aeeounted for. SOUTHERN BUPERINTERDEXCY. At the period 6f the last annual report from this office, affiirs in this snperin-tendency, comprising what is known as the ' I Indian country," south'of Kaa-aaa, together with the Osages along the sonthem border of that State, were still in the confused and discouraging condition which necessarily resulted from the war. Portions of the country about Forts Gibson and Smith, and the traeelied route fin eovernment trains from the north to those nosts. were held h~v U-, ni ted ~~~ ~ Sratea I U ~ ~ a~ndS a; p orriw ul'tl~eI ndians, whu had relu~inedl oyal ro rhe gov-crumcnt, were arrrmpting to euhrisr tl~emdrlvesil l the neighborhood of the above fais. 3faoy of r l~eab le-bodied men of the luval srctio~nso f the trihcs wen. iu ~ ~- the United States service as soldiers, hut maGy thousands of the people were, in Kansas arid portions of the Indian country, subsisted at the expwse of the funds which, if the tribes hadremained steadfast to the Union, would have gone to them as annuities. Serious complaints were being made to the department that stock owned by Indians, and necessary for their. subsistence, and the small crops of corn raised by those who had been able to till the ground, were being taken from them by unprincipled speculators. Some of the military officers had laid the blame for this state of things upon the Indian agents, but an investiga-tion of these charges showed them to be without foundation. The most strio-gent rules and regulations in regard to the sale of stock from the Indian country were adopted and issued, but it is apparent that the practice of running stock . out of the country has continued, the keenness of the speculators enabling them to elude the vigilance of the officers, and it is believed that an immense amount of such stolen stock has been purchased at large priees by the government. The information obtained by Superintendent Sells, b given in his repo$t, fur-nishes some idea of the enormous extent as well as profit of the business, where contractors obtain ready sale for the plunder at such rates as they have received from the government. The reports of Agents Harlan and Reynolds throw fur-ther light upon the subject, and it is gratifying to. know that by their efforts, aided in good earnest by the military force put at their disposal by Major Gen- . . era1 Mitchell, who has shown every disposition to assist them, much has been done towards breaking up this nefarious traffic. I t is manifest, ho%ever, that |