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Show I nu TtiE C03lMISSIONER O F I N D I A N AFFAIRS. DEPAKJ3IEiul' OF THE INTEBIOB, OFFICE OF IRDIAANF PAIRS, lVnshington, Noacmber 1, 155s. SIR: I hare the honor, ill accordance with law, to submit the annual report of the Indian Bureau, accompanied with reports of eigbtptwo superintendents and agents. Only one agent has failed to forward his report. The attention of the honorable Secretnrj- is especia,lly i~ivitetl to tlre general encouraging tenor of these reports, cooveyi~~ugu mistakable evidence of a year of advance in the civilization of Iudians. This testi-mony is entitled to great meigllt. It comes from competent witnesses on the ground, men of ordinary ii~telligeneea nd comnlou sense, speak-ing out of personal knowledge and experience of from one to five je.ars. With few excepldons, abi~udautly :~ccounted for by untov-arti circum-stances, their t,estirnony is uniform to the fact that the civilizition of Indialis is not o u l ~en tirel.~p racticable. hut is fairly under way. While public attention is being directed principally to the great Sious tribe in its disturbed condition, the larger portion of the remaining 325,000 Indians who have passed the Fear coml~arativelyn onoticed furuislies the field of labor from which the encouraging Pacts are gathered. A comparative statement,, made from statistics coveriug a periorl of fire years, gives ample concurrent testirno~~tgo a steady progress year by year. The statisrics of the present year, gathered with mole than nsnal care, furnisll in~portanfta cts for consideration. By the num-ber of Indians returned they snbstantially verify the counts and esti-mates of last Seal; malcirrg a total, as now enumerat,ed, of 275,963. This popnlation is dete?miued by actual count of the tribes, with the exception of Nerajors, Papagoes, Pueblos, Blissio~I~n dians, roamers in Oregon,. the Blackfeet, I'iegans, noo-treat,y Sioux, and a portion of the Utes, iu all less tllan tift.y thoasaucl, and for these fift,y thonsancl, wit11 the exception of not exceeding. ten thoasond, t l ~ ee stiruates have been based on long acquaint;lnco with the condition a1111 habits of their tribes, and cannot be far from correct. Taking labor which Indiwus undertake for the~nselresa nd its results as a standard of progress, the reports show ftijrty-two thousand six hun-dred and thirtpeiglrt rnnle Indiaus, represehtiug not far. froin t l~osa me number of India11 fidmiles, undertalci~~sgel f-snpport by labor \I-ith their own bands. Aportion of the111h ave labored an~kwnrdlye nong11,sncl with little protit to tl~enlselves,e xcept that whicl~c ornps fro111t he etfort, hut the mijority of these laborers hare procurer1 tllu larger ~iortiono f their |