OCR Text |
Show REPORT OF TIIE CODIfiIISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. XLIII in co~lneotiouw ith their industrial school, which have yielded a suficient supply of grain, vegetables, &c., for the snbsistenoe of the school. The members of the tribe now absent in the In dian Territory are there withoutt, leave or aothority, and will receive none of the benefits result-ing from treaty stipolatious until they comply fully with the reqnire-ments of the department and return to their agency, as provided by section 3 of the act approved March 3, 1875. This tribe mill in a short time be capable of managing their o \ ~ naf - fairs witliout the i1umediatesup8rvision or oversight of an a.geut. Nost of them desire an allotment of their lands in severalty, and this shoiuld be dolie under pro;)er rr~trictions,a s early as lmssible, a : ~ dth e waypre-pared to oxton~It o t.hcrn the rights, privileges, and protection of Ameri-can citizenshil). S/rc ci.1~P~2o & of the Xssouri. This tribe ~~uuubeirss, and havir~g1 ue11e no marked progress for years past., their conilition is very diffhre~~frto m that of their neighbors, the Iomas. Their cash annnity paymeut is a great obstacle to their advance-ment. So lollg as the?- are f ~zr~~i shweitdh funds to meet their cnrrent expenses thoy will not be inclined to devote much of their time to manual labor, or, if they do, it will be merely suffioient to exempt them from the restrictions of the act prohibiting the payment of annuities, "except to those who perform labor equal in value to the annnity paid them." Anotluer ca~useo f their slow progress may be attributed to a diversity of sentiment among them in regard to their removal to the Indian Terri-tory, This cliuestion has been agitated by many members of the tribe forseveral years past, creating a restless and uneettled state of feeling , among them, and twelve of their nnmbnr withill the past two years have left the agency and joiuetl their friends on the Sac and Fox Reservatiol~ in the Indian Territory. Under the provisicns of section 3 of the act approved Marc'h 3,1875, no annuities mill l ~pea id them until thoy rettunl to their own reservation, settle d o w ~wi t11 their bret.hren there aud pel. form the service required by said act. I OTOZS AND XSSSOURSAS. The 1uilia11s of this agency comprise the confederated tribe of Otoes and Missourias, numbering in all 434. Their reservation, containing 43,000 acres, is located in the valley of the Eig Blne River, on the State line between Kansas a11d Nebraska, and is said to be one of the finest tracts of lau~flo r agrie~~lturpaulr poses west of t11c Missouri River; yet as a tribe these Indians have not improve11 their advantages, hnt have been slom to give u1p their old habits aud customs, and to undertake self-support by the c~~ltivatiofn t hb soil. A large ntu111ber of the tribe have been anxious for the past three or four years to re~noveto the 111dia11 Territory, where they can hare better access to game and can enjoy tho hospitality of other tribes. l'lie constant agitation of this su~l>jccatm ong |