OCR Text |
Show 90 IEFORJlATION, HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL, The Western Shoshone Iudisos nuder rnp charge have improved in civilized habits during thepnst gear, aod have received little or no assistance from the Governnient. They are generally inclined to be industrious, but are n 'low, degraded race, sod solne areverg indolent. They are allpe~eably'inolineda,n d qoite anumber are engaged in farming for themselves, and a great msny support themselves by working for the rvhite people. Those that are farming have raised grain and vegetables enough for their support during the xvinter. They have no reservation, aud are scattered over a larea traot of countrr. Some of the Iudiaos who ere engaged in farming are compelled to rent land of the whites. nearly all of the tillable land being eleimed by the white set- Glers. More of the Iudians would engage in farruing if they had the land. There has been eonsidernble sioknsss among them, several deaths ooourring during the past Fear. I mould respectfully suggest that a suitable reservation be set apart for the Sho-ahonesof Nevada as soon a8 praoticable. The whites are rapidly settling up the counwg, and in many oases the Inrlianv are ooo~pellectl o give up their little farnls. The game is baing driven ant. and in a short time there will be.110 plaoe suitlabla far a reservation, and the In<liaos will have nothing to subsist upon. They express an anxiety to be takeu to a reservation snit&blle for them, that they might be assisted in ease of neoessity, aoil be able to sopport themselves mithont fear of being molested. If a reservation he established, and one Indian from each bend be allowed to viait the same aud rettlrn ant1 report, I ohiok the result would be good. In this may the Indians eoulil be peaceably iudtloed to oougregate at one plwe, here they could be assisted and protected. As they are, many of them die fur the want of a little onre. No effort has been made to educate these Iudinos. They are all peaceably iocliued and willing to do right. Great improvement could be macla in their habits, if properl~a ttended to. SIAHS. Remarks in regard to the Hoopas are applicable to t.he 5G Siahs, who are uativc to Humboldt County, California, and were removed to the Hoopa Valley reservation from the Smith River farm at the time of the aban-donment of an agency at that point. SIOUX. Reference bas already been mnile, on pages G to 9 of t h i ~re port, to the char,ges for the better which are gearly occurring in this largest of all t h ~I,n dian tribes, and the most expensive and troublesome with whom che Government has to deal. Their number, based on careful estimate as to 10,000, and for the remainder, on actual count, is 50,044. The num-ber of the L ' h ~ ~ t i lroea~m"in g through Dakota, nuder the leadership of Sitting Bull and a few other chiefs, mas put last year at 7,000. Daring the rear 4,000 of these Indianshare come in tothestanding Rock, Spotted Tail, and Cheyenne River agencies, reduciug the number of those who can now properly be called hostile to about 3,000. These have been guilty of more or less depredating throughout the year, especially in Montana, and their hostility extends no less to other tribes of Indians on the north and west than to the whites. The Sioux are included nuder twelve agencies-nine in Dakota, two in Montana, and one in Nebraska-at all of which, except at Fort Bel-knap, a beginning in Indian farming has been made in spite of all dis-couragements by reason of unsnitable location and the demoralizing iu-flueuce of the " hostiles." At Fort Belknap are collected, and fed when game fails, 3,500 of the more peaceable and less enterprising of the Assinaboine Siozcx, who, bv reason of their nreater friendliness. have come in closer contact with mhi&kpsellers ;~nd?lle~itimatrea tlt.rs. It should also be said that the Fort Bellintip agencr was canblisl~ed in 1873 as a feeding-post fol. sttch lntiians as wr e roo ~lisrnutt o colue ad\.a~~-ta neouswl\i.t hin the i~lrialic- tion of the Milk River agency. At Red Olond agency, where 9,lq6 Ogallallaa, who have almost &an-doned the chase on account of scarclty of game, report for rations, sixty |