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Show BPOBT OF THE COMMIWONEB OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. XXVII THIE SIOUX. Among the 32,286 Sioux who are gatbered at 11 ageuciee-9 in Dakota, 1 in Montana, and 1 in Nebmskapeme md good order have pwvailed throughout the year. At Santee, Bisseton, and Devil's Lake Agencies self-support is nearly reached, the proportion of the subsistence for those Indians which is derived from the issue of government rations being 3420, and 25 per cent., respectively. They are located in serer-alty, live in houses, wear citizen's dress, send their children to school, own farming impleme,uts ahd stock, and their crops during the past ye= will average ten bushels of wheat, five bushels of corn, and sixteen bushels of vegetables to each member of the tribe. With such crops, whieh would furnish ampIe support for a whiee man, even a partial issue of rations would seem to be unnecessmy, but allowance must be made for Indian appetite And Indian improvidence, and,also for what the In-dians would conhider unjust discrimination on .the part of the govem-ment, should their Great Father, while issuing rations to his wild andin-dolent children, entirely withhold them from those who are iudustriousIy endeavoring, in every way, to comply with his wishes. Moreover, their surplus crops are largely invested in the purchase of farming imple-ments, cattle, and other appliances of civilized life which directly advance their own civilizat.ion, and which would otherwise hwe to be furnished by the government. About three-fourths of the Sioux at the Yaukton Agency hare made equal progress in adopting the customs of civilized life. At Cheyenne River, Crow Creek, Standing Rock, an& Lower Brul6 Agencies progress was seriously retarded by the Sioux war, three yeass ago ; but the erection of 718 houses, the selection of individual farms, the breaking of nearly 600 acres (in addition to 1,800 acres previously under cultivation) and the raising of 41,000 bushels of wheat and corn, and 12,000 bushels of vegetables by these Indians during the past year, shows them to be again under the influence of the adr-ance movement which prevails throughout the erl tire &oux nation. They remain quietly at their agencies and depend for subsistence, principally, on the issue of government rations. At the Lower Bml6 Agency a boarding-school building is in course of erection, and at the others three good boarding and four day scbools have been attended by 300 pupils. Thc4,713 Yanktonliais Sioux at Fort Peck, with the 1,116 of the North-ern Sioux who haGe deserted Sitting Bull's camp, and, after surrender. ilrg arms and ponies, hare attached themsel17est o the Fort Peck Agency, are the only'Sio~= who now engage in bunting to any extent. They are wild, blanket Indians, who have recently made a small beginning in civilization by the putting np of 32 log houses and the cnltivation of 204 acres. A boarding-school building, to acoommodate 50 scholars, is in course of erection, which, without donbt. can be filled with pupils aq soon aa completed. |