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Show REPORT OF THE CObIMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 7 they inhabit is not adapted to their support in a civilized mode of life. Undoubtedly a much larger nnmber of white people c o ~ ~ml dai ntain themselves by farming and herding in the vast domain assigned to the Sioux, but this is possible only to a people trained to such hahits of thrift and industry as would enable them to sustain themselves for one year, or even two, in event of loss of crops by drought or grasshoppers. An Indian farmer must be far alone in civilization before he will have become forehanded enough for sGh an emergency, and it would be scarcely aossible for the Sioux'to come from barbarism to thiscondition in a oouhtry where they areliable to such losses two years out of iive. It may be said that. t,be Government can come to their aid and carry them over these occasional years of failure; but such help, teachingthe Indian to rely on other resources than his own, would he a constant lesson in improvidence, and thus tend to defeat the end in view. The larger portion of the Territory is unsuited to herding on accour~ot f the severe winters, which make it necessary to provide hay during several months of the year. Proper care of cattle in such ciruumstances pre-supposes a degree of civilization of Indians which would place them above all necessity of Government guardianship. The ponies which the Indians now raise in large numbers, being more hardy than cattle, snr-vive the cold and hunger of a Dakota winter with such support as they get from the grass under the snow, and the bark of the cotton-wood tree. But these ponies, even if a market rras found for them, could not be rained in suBoient numbers to furuish a means of support to a peo-nle in civilized life. The Sioux now upon the Missouri River can possibly find suitable soil and wooded country sufficient for as large an exuerimeut of civilization as they can for some years to come be iduced toundertake, though not without serious disadmutages. Many of these Indians along the Blin-souri, as will be seen by the reports of their respective agents, are al-ready beginning in earnest to labor for themselves. The stock cattle furnished at Cheyenne, Crow Creek, and Ysnkton agencies one year ago have been as well cared for by these Indians as could have been ex-pected, and more are now called for by others at these agencies and at Red Cloud aud Spotted Tail. The experiment in this direction at Grand River was not so successful. This process of settling down will gradu-ally extend until the bands along the river are brought into a degree of civilization that will render them no longer hostile or dangerous to neighboring settler^; but it isnot at all likely that the country willfnr-nish them withsuch farms and means of subsistence as to make it un-necessary to provide for a certain portion of their support yearly; and the furnishing of this support mill, in itself, retard aud in many ways damage the process of civilization. E'or the main portion of the Sioux Nation living in Northern Montana, and west of the Missouri River in Dakota, there is not even this degree of hopeful prospect, on account of the barrenness of their country. TFIE BLACK HILLS EXPEDITION. A military recon~~oiterinegx pedition to the country in Southwestern Dakota, known as the Black Hills, occasioned great excitement among the whole Sioux people during the summer. They regard it as a palpa-ble infraction of their treaty stipulations, and were filled with the appre-hensiou that it mightlead to their exclusion from a country held sacredly their own, and highly prized as their homeand last refuge from the eu-croachment of settlements. The exaggerated accounts of rich lnines |
