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Show REPORT COMMISSZONER OF IYDIAN AFFAIRS. DRPARTXENT OF TBE INTERIOR, OFFICE OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, Wnshingtw, October 24,1881. SIR : I haye the honor to submit herewith the annual report of the Indian Bureau for the year 1881. In the outset, I desire to urge with earnestness the absolute ueccs-sity for a thorough and radical change of the h~dia,up olicy in some respects, and in so doing I shall touch upon points vhich mill be re-ferred to more tit length hereafter under special heatliugs. It is claimed and admitted by all that the great object of the gov-ernment'is to civilize the Indians and render them such assistance in kind and degree as will make them self-supporting, and yet I think no one mill deny that one part of our policy is calcolated to produce the very opposite result. It must be apparent to the most casual ob-server that the system of gathering the I~ldiansi n bands or tribes on reservations and carqing to them victuals and clothes, thus relieving them of the necessity of labor, never will and never can civilize them. Labor is an essential element in producing civilization. If white men were treated as n-e treat the Indians t.he result would certainly be arace of worthless va.gabonds. The greatest kindness the government can be-stow upon the Indian is to teach him to labor for his cwn support, thus developing his trne mauhood, and, as a conseqne,nce,, making him self-relying and self-st~l~porting: We are expending annually over one million dollars in feeding and I/. clothing Indians where no treaty obligation exists for so doing. This . is simply a gratuity, and it is presmned no one will question the expe-diency or the right of the governme~lti,f it bestows gratuities upon Indians, to make labor of some useft11 801% a condition precedent to such gift, especially when all of the products of woh 1al)or go to the Indial&. To domesticate and civilixe wild Indians is it noble work, the accomplishment of which should be a, crown of glory to any nation. But to allow them to drag along year after year, and generation after genera ti or^, in their old superstitious, laziness, mcl filth, when we have the power to elevate them in the scale of humanity, wo111d be a lasting disgrace to our government. The past experience of t.his government I11 |