OCR Text |
Show Time was required to accomplish the enrollment according to law.and iu a manner satisfactory to the Indians, this office, and the depa,rtinent, so that the list was not finally submitted for your approval until the 2!?t,h of September last. This listj with its notes, references, &c., ap-pears to be rcry f1111, con~plete,a nd satisfactory, and will be valuable for future reference as a trne exhibit of this people at the time it was tk%keu. The necessity for the delay incident to preparingit can be ap-preciated bj- tbose only who are familiar with the circumstances and the labor and research connected therewith. The IIon. Calvin Con~gill,o f Wabash, Ind., haring been appointed and haring duly qnalificd as agent to make this payment, it will be completetl witl~ont ntlnecessa.ry delay, probably during the current month. In tbis connection I desire to call attention tb the fact that, with the .exception of that for the Sac and FoxIndiaus, the foregoing legi~lation may be termed special, and the extra work thereby entailed on this office mnst. bave been unforeseen when t,he clerical, force allowed this bnrean for the present year was under consideration. An addition ot a.t least one-fifth was thereby unexpectedly added to t.he general work of this office, so that the several acts mentioned caul$ not-be carried -oat as promptly as they Oho111d bave been, and the current work of the office has conseqne,ntly been much retarded. It ma,y also be observed that the funds necessary to carry out these .euactments were not always provided, and this office was obliged touse for the purp6se the appropriation for 1' Co~~tingenoieIsn, dian Depart-ment," a fund that has always been insufficient for the regular re-quirements of the service. SANITARY. The sa.nitary conrlition of the Irldians remains about the same as at last annnal report. The aggregatenumber of case.8 of sickness treated, 'however, has material1y'increaseti, being 83,899 against 67,352 for last year, while the number of deaths reported is only 1,440 against 1,936. The n~imber of births is 1,290, bnt these nninbers are probably not strictly accurate, as the pl~ysicianr eports only those which come nnder his a c t ~ ~kanlo wledge; and as the disposition of the'Indiaus of some of the tribe8 is to keep these faot,s secret, perfectly reliable rctatistics are difficr~lt o obtain. The increase in cases of sickness treated indicates the growth of confidence in the agency physicians and in the civilized mode of treatment of disease, a11(1 a tendency to abandon the barbar-ous pmctic&s of the mht,ive medicine-men. The number of cases vaoci- ~latedis 1,576. The monthly sanitary reports from physicirw~sh ave been forthemost part satisfactory, and the ratio of mortality to the number of cases treated indicates a remarkable degree of success. The agency 1,hysi-cians at man;o of the agencies are not provided with the necessary hos- 2i tal accon~morlat.ioi~asn, d as the sick have to be treated in their quar- |