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Show REPORT OF THE COMBIB8IONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. XIIZ is nemssrary fW the m&rhande of ot-deP $nd good government at the s~vettaal geneim, and is of the htghe5t importance in temhmg Indians IraBits ti~oivi1izadli fe and evenb.al sekf.govegubent. XAERIAGES. In my last annual report I recommended the enactment of a law to prevent polygmy, which prevails in alm.ost every zndian tribe, and to provide, for legal marriages among Indi&ns. I om do no better than to repeat that recommendation here : An a& of Congress ahonld provide wholesome and proper marriage laws fk Indian tribe& The agent should be required to marry all the Indims cobbiting together upon the vsrioua reservations, giving them a aertifioate of suoh marriage; mtl after the beginning of thenext year no Indian shonld be permitted to marry more than one wife. White men oohabiting with Indian women should be oompelled either to nuwry them or to quit the reservation. TBE PONCAS. Aa stmatedin my last annual report the Poncas were finally settled on both sides of the hlialt Fork near its jnactior??with the Arkansas Eiver. The location is healthy and the soil fertile. There is everything in. the surroundings of the agency to please the eye, and it is nnivemlly re. garded as the best location for an Indian agency to be found anywhere in the country. The Poncas are now doing well. Nany houses have alreadybeen built, and by the 1st of January next the agent expect8 to have the whale tribe comfortably supplied with houses. They have been finxishe'd with wagons and harness for freighting and farm purposes, and have hauled their own supplies from Wichit* Kansas. They have been supplied vlth horses and cattle for stock-raising, and also with agriculturalimple-ments sufficient for all the members of their tribe. A steam savmill and-a shingle-machine have been placed at the agency, and have been run-ning wntinuously since March last. A school-house has been built and a sehool ha3 been inoperation for a considerable portion of the year. In brief, every thing pomible has been done to promote their comfort and civilization. As reported heretofore, these Indians suffered greatly in health by their-removal to the Indian Territory, but they have now hecome accli-mated and the health of the tribe has greatly improved. By the treaty of March 12, 1858 (12 Stat., 997), the Ponca tribe of Indians ceded to the United States all the lands then owned or claimed by them except a tract in what is now the Territory of Dakota, which was reserved in said tre&ty as their future home. In consideration of. such session the United Sbtes stipulatad, among other things, "To protect the Poncas in the possession of the tract of land reserved for their future homes md their persons and property therein during good behavior on their part." By the treaty of March 10, 1865 (14 Stat., |