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Show eol~taetw ith tho unfriendlg Sioux, and arrived there i u Julg last, haye alreadj lost 31; by tleatl~,w hic11, by a o ordiuarj romputntion, would be the death-mte for tile eutire trihe ri~r:I 11e1iodo f four Tears. In this connection, I recommend the removal of ail the Indians in Colorado and Arizona to the Indian Territory. In Colorado, gold and silver mines are scattered over a wide extent of territory, and are to be found in every conceivable direction, running into Indian j reservations. Of course miners will follow the various leads and prospect nea ones without regard to the barriers set up by an Indian reserva-tion. Hence the sojourn of Indians in this State will be sure to lead to strife; contention. aud war. besides entailing an enormous exoense to feed and pn~vidu'fort b~m. ' Agi+il~tl,l vre is'no hope 01, civilizi;lg these Jndians wltile they reside in Color~trloa, s a11 tile arable I : I I I ~ in t l ~ eS tato is required for ics white settlers. A mining population needs in its immediate vicinity abundant facilities for agriculture to feed it. The question of feeding the white population of the State is one of para-mount importance, aud will certainly force itself on the attention of the government. What is true of Colorado is to a certain extent true of Arizona also; bnt in addition thereto, i t must he cor~sideredt hat the expense of trans. J porting annuities and supplies isenormous. The governmeut has been paying eight and ten cents per pound for the transportation of flour and other necessaries to feed the Indians. and the total cost of main- I tai11iug tlle 1110ia11tr ilwa 01' Ariza~rut or 111ep 81st three gears 11m heen $ l ,U4 , I 1 l . \Virile tile Indinus are kept therr t l~i s ex~) cndi tw~i~ll rgeo on, perhaps indefinitely increasing, without any correspondingimprov~meut in their welfare or civilization. lo re over, the Indians of the State and Territ0r.y are uneasy and restless, and are constantly moving about, both on and off their reservations. The true remedy for these evils is their immediateremoval to theIndian Territory, where58,000 square miles are set apart for the use of Indians; where tfiey can be fed and clothed at a greatly diminished expense; and where, bet,ter than all, they can be --. kept in obedience, and taught to become civilized and self-supporting. I ON AGENTS. The anomaly of the present sgstem of paying Indiau agents needs only to be stated to be apparent. We pa.y an a,gont having cha,rge of three hundred and twenty-five Indians $1,500, while another, having the care of seven thousand, is paid only the same sum. It may also happen that an agent having the oversight of but three hundred and twenty-five Indims may have with him a son employed as a clerk at $1,000 per au-nnm, a daughter as a teacher at $600 per annum, a hrother a@ a farmer at $900 per annum, a cousin as a blacksmith at $900 per aunum, with a nephew as a carpenter at $500. At the same time, another agent hav-ing the care of seven thousand, having only his wife, (not under pay,) though obliged to entertain all strangers and milit,ary officers visiting ' his agency, draws from his salary only a bare subsistence for himself and wife, and is necessarily in very straitened circumstances. This latter case, to my knowledge, is literally and exactly true of one agent. The first case stated, though a supposable one, is possible to have occurred under onr ~ r e s e nsty stem. I recom&end, to "remedy this inequality and unfairness, a classifica-tion of the agencies as follows: Agents of the first class, having in charge 7,000 or more Indians, 989.500. " Agents of the second class, having in charge more than 5,000 and less than 7,000 Indians, $2,200. |
