OCR Text |
Show tilling the ground; but for the present, at least, they must he dependent npon the government. Let us glance at the condition of the several tribes as portrayed in the report of the superintendent and agents: % The Seminoles numbered before the war nearly 2,500, of whom more than half came out with the loyal Creeks and took refuge in Kansas, their able-bodied men joining the United States army. There are about 2,000 of the-tribe left. Some 500 of them were furnished with seed and a fzw agricultural implements last spring, and, npon land near Fort Gibson, in the Cherokee conntry, labored diligently and with some degree of successfor the means of subsistence, having raised produce to the value of 862,500. The records of their old agency have been preserved through tho war, and are safe at Fort Wasbita. They are anx-ious to go to their own country south and west of the Creek region, but matters there are not sufficiently settled as yet, and the agent thinks that they should be removed to some point among the Creeks and subsisted there, to be near, their own lands at the opening of spriug. About 1,000 of them are now draw-ing rations from government. They are very pour and destitute. and must be fed and clothed, or suffer and starve. Agent Reynolds says that they wish to settleupon individual lands, where they can own and enjoy the fruit of their own labors. As they are closely allied to the Creeks, and speakthat language, they might perhaps he consolidated with them; or, if not, it is thought that they would be glad to dispose of the western portion of their lands, to be used for a home for other Indians, and thus procure the means for establishing themselves again in a eondition to become self-supporting, and educate their children. Agent Reynolds has been especially active in efforts to stop the plundering of Indian stock. and thinks that his efforts have been successfnl. Of the Cherokees, all of the nation at first joined the rebels, including allfac-tions, of full and mixed blood. Repiments were raised by the order of the party in po'wer, then and now the majoGty, called the Ross party, which regiments fought against the Unio~lf orces at Pea Ridge and on other occasions. All seem to have agreed as to their course of action down to the fall of 1862, when a portion of the troops, under Colonel Downing, 2d chief, and a majority of the nation, abandoned the rebel cause and came within our lines. About 6,500 of the more wealthy portion still continued to co-operate with the south till the close of the war; and about 9,000,early and late, came hack to theirallegiance. Two regiments of these people, numbering 2,200 men, deserted the rebel cause as above stated, and sinee that time, to the end of the war, have fought on the side of the Union. The total population of the nation is now estimated at ahont 14,000. Bad as is the eondition of all these southern Indians, that of the Cherokees is much worse than the remaipder of the tribes. They have a domestic feud, of long standing, which prevents them from coming together for mutual aid and snp-port in their manifold troubles. In 1863 a portion of them had gone hack to their country, expecting to he protected by the United States troops in raising a crop for their support ; but they weredriven from theirfields by rebel parties; and while their former brothers were plundering them from one direction, their white fn'ends from Icansas were stripping the conntry of their stock from the other. The account given by Agent Harlan of the nodur operandi of the cattle-thieving husiness would be amusing, if the thing described were not out- .%' ~ageoualyc riminal. Some idea of the extent of this husiness may he obtained ' )when it is seen that the agent estimates the losses of the Cherokees in stock alone at two millions ($2,000,000,) while Snperintendent Sells thinks that the losses of aW the tribes have amounted to full four nilliolaa. About 9,000 Cherokees are now receiving rations from government, and a large portion of those lately disloyal are,snffering greatly for the necessaries of life. They need food, clothing, tools, everything in fact, to begin life again |