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Show XI1 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. organization. It represents law and ortler, and the members, uniformed and disei-plined, and far advanced in civilization, offer the best and mast praoticnl example for the ozher Indians of the tribe to copy after, which they are rapidly doing in the way of sdopting civilieed olothing, &c. In closing, I would request thnt, in consideration of the valutsble services rendered by members of the police, they having aided the government and whits men, an against their own people, an effort be made to induce Collgreas to allow something mare then the somewhat ridionlous compensation of &5 per month for service. Thew men have boen led to expect more, and it should be given them, for if ever lsborere were worthy of their hire, these certainly are. TRANSPORTATION BY INDIANS. The experiment of intrusting wild Iudians with the transportation of their own supplies and annuity-goods from the railroad terminus to the agency was undertaken first at the Cheyenne and Arapaho Agency in the summer and fall of 1877. Wagons and harness were supplied by the government, and ponies were furnished by the Indians. For the whole distance, 165 miles, they were paid $1.50 per 100 pounds, in cash, - or were credited at the rate of $1.75 per 100 pounds on the firchase of the wagons, harness, &c., which they had undertaken to earn. In this wa.y 105 wagons have become the property of the Cheyennes and Ara-pahoes. Three hundred thousand pounds were transported the firat year, five hundred thousand the second, and during the past year over one million pounds of supplies have been hauled by their teams. Dur-ing the present year the flonr and corn, which last season was delivered il at the agency by the contractor, will also be taken by the Indians from the railroad, and will add nearly a million more pounds to the quantity to be freighted by them, thus enabling the agent to give employment to others of the tribe who are now eager to enga,ge in the enterprise. In the fall of 1575 substantially the same plan was carried out at the Kiowa and Comanche agency, in the Indian Territory, and the Sioux. Agencies at Pine Ridge and Rosebud, and with the same success. Dnr-ing the past year not less than eight million pounds of supplies were hauled by the Indians of the four agencies above named, over distances of 165,160,200, and 92 miles respectively, and in cornpensation therefor they have received the sum of $115,900. So popular has this branch of industry hewme that the demands of these Indians for freighting are largely in excess of the quantity of governmenUfreight required to be transported, and theletting of a transportation contract for Indian goods to a white man would be deemed an infringement on their rights and privileges. At the Devil's Lake, Sisseton, Fort Hall, Osage, Kaw, Pawnee,Ponca, Oakland, Sac and Fox, Pottawatomie, White Earth, Great Nemaha, Western Shoshone, Grand Ronde, Siletz, Warm Springs, Green Bay, and Shoshone Agencies, freighting is monopolized by Indian teamstera. Even the Utes have fallen into line, and will this fall undertake to trans-port the goods and supplies purchased for the Uintah Valley Agency. |